Tandoori chicken in oven or chicken tandoori oven baked is a delicious chicken delicacy baked in the oven with marinated chicken. The chicken used here is chicken legs with the thighs and using this section to make chicken tandoori gives the right taste and flavors.
There are many indian chicken varieties on the blog ranging from starters to curries to special rice recipes using chicken such as dahi chicken, chicken changezi, chicken tikka, chicken jalfrezi .
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About the recipe
This is a perfectly restaurant style of a chicken recipe made by marinating the chicken with spices and yogurt.
The spices which I have used are basic such as salt, chili powder, ginger garlic paste but additional ingredients added are chaat masala powder, kasoori methi, some oil in marinating chicken and food color to give more flavors.
The chicken used to make this recipe can be used as a whole or can be made by using just chicken leg quarters.
Here, I have used chicken leg quarters which is usually the quarter leg portion of the chicken.
The marination spice mixture is separately mixed with spices and yogurt and then coated to the whole chicken.
The chicken is then set to rest for 1 or 2 hours in the refrigerator in order to let all the spices absorb well and give a good taste to the chicken.
The marinated chicken should be cooked on both sides in the oven for at least an hour for it to cook well and become soft and juicy from inside.
This cooking which is done here in the oven can also be made without oven and I have already shared this recipe on my blog and do have a look at it.
Ingredients
The spices that are used are basic and we just need to mix the spices with the yogurt and use any oil preferably mustard oil if making it in a traditional method.
If living abroad and finding spices in stores is difficult then do make use of tandoori chicken masala which is readily available in markets.
Just add salt and tandoori masala to yogurt and mix everything well and apply to the chicken and marinate for few hours before placing in the oven.
The adding of oil to the marinade is essential as it helps in holding all the spices and the masala to the chicken well.
Difficult or simple?
This is one simple and quick baked chicken recipe which is simple and can be made by anyone and not necessarily in oven.
Just take a heavy bottom pan , add little oil plus butter and heat it and then add the marinated chicken to the pot or pan and cook well on both sides and keep flipping either sides until they get cooked well and it takes about 45 minutes for it get cooked on pan on medium to low heat.
Best accompaniments to the chicken
This recipe of tandoori chicken in oven is basically a starter dish and instead of using chicken leg quarters one can make use of chicken drumsticks as well to make this recipe.
It can also be served along with paratha recipes or roti recipes or can be accompanied as a fried dish to many main course recipes.
You can even enjoy it with parotta recipe which is a kerala style of making paratha which is normally eaten with curries but can even be tried with flat chicken starters along with other side dishes.
Some tips before making
- Clean all the fat or remove the skin on the chicken if there is any skin left on the chicken pieces.
- Wash the chicken well with turmeric and lemon extract in order to get rid of any smell.
Step by step photos and procedure
- Wash the chicken leg quarters well. Make sure the chicken pieces are strained well so that the water is dripped completely and when chicken is coated with the masala it can be easily absorbed.
- Take the chicken leg quarters, make slight cuts to the chicken. Cuts are given to let the masala infuse inside the chicken and gives juicy flavours while cooking and eating.
- Add yogurt into a mixing bowl.
- Add salt, red chili powder, turmeric powder, ginger garlic paste.
- Add garam masala powder, chaat masala powder.
- add lemon drops extracted from half a lemon.
- add a pinch of orange food color. Here I am using orange color, but if you prefer a natural looking tandoori chicken then skip adding the food color. If red color is preferred then add red food coloring. Try to avoid food color and can keep it as natural as possible. For festive cooking or restaurant cooking the food colors are usually added but home cooking of this chicken can skip the color.
- add oil and any edible oil can be used as for this recipe mustard oil or olive oil is usually preferred.
- Mix all these ingredients well.
- add dried kasoori methi and give a good mix.
- Add the chicken leg pieces and coat it well with all the mixed masala.
- Cover and marinate the chicken for 1 hour in the refrigerator. Marination lets all the masala get absorbed well into the masala and can be baked with resulting juicy flavours.
- Preheat the oven at 350°F or 180° C.
- Take a baking tray and cover it with an aluminium foil.
- Place a baking wire rack on the tray.
- Place the marinated chicken on the wire rack. I usually follow this step so that all the unwanted fat associated with the chicken gets collected at the bottom and gives a healthy tandoori chicken after baking. This setup can be followed for any chicken baking recipe.
- Place the above set up in the oven. Bake the chicken for 30 minutes in the oven at the mentioned temperature.
- Take the chicken out, apply butter to the chicken.
- Flip the half cooked chicken and apply butter to it on all sides.
- Cook the other side for another 30 minutes in the oven.
- Take it out from the oven and it is ready to be served with a dip or enjoy as a starter.
Video
Recipe
tandoori chicken in oven, indian baked chicken
Ingredients
- 2 chicken leg quarters
- 3 tablespoon thick yogurt or curd
- salt to taste
- 1 teaspoon red chilli powder
- a pinch of turmeric powder
- 1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste
- ½ teaspoon garam masala powder
- ¼ teaspoon chaat masala powder
- 2 teaspoon lemon extracted juice
- a pinch of orange food color
- 2 tablespoon oil
- ¼ teaspoon dried kasoori methi
Instructions
- Wash the chicken leg quarters well.
- Take the chicken leg quarters, make slight cuts to the chicken.
- Add yogurt into a mixing bowl, add salt, red chili powder, turmeric powder, ginger garlic paste.
- Add garam masala powder, chaat masala powder, orange food color, lemon extract, oil.
- Mix all these ingredients well.
- Take the chicken and coat it well with all the masala.
- Cover and marinate the chicken for 1 hour in refrigerator.
- Preheat the oven at 350°F or 180° C.
- Take a baking tray and cover it with an aluminium foil.
- Place a baking wire rack on the tray.
- Place the marinated chicken on the wire rack.
- Put it in the oven.
- Cook for 30 minutes in the oven.
- Take the chicken out, apply butter to the chicken.
- Flip the chicken and apply butter to it again.
- Cook for another 30 minutes in the oven.
- Take it out from the oven and it is ready to be served with a dip or enjoy as a starter.
Notes
- Instead of chicken leg quarters, chicken drumsticks or whole chicken can be used to make the same recipe using the same procedure.
- Additional spices such as kali mirch powder or black pepper powder can be added in the marinade for more flavors.
Nutrition
FAQ'S
Yes, one can make this same chicken without an oven and I have already posted that video. The recipe to make the chicken without an oven can be checked on my blog which is chicken tandoori on gas stove.
Tandoor is a clay based oven set up which has very high temperature inside it and the whole chicken or chicken leg quarters are marinated and inserted into big skewers and the skewers are then placed inside the tandoor which are too hot.
The chicken when placed in tandoor gets cooked quickly which are then served by applying butter to the chicken pieces.
Absolutely, the chicken can be marinated and baked in the oven as I have mentioned in the recipe. Not everyone has a tandoor but we can have a grill or an oven at home where this recipe can be applied. Just grill the marinated chicken or bake as per preference and we get the same results as we obtain from street food and in fact better results.
The recipe shared is the most common recipe to make the chicken tandoori but additionally nowadays we also get tandoori chicken masala easily available in stores. The masala can be added as an additional ingredient while marinating the chicken. It gives an amazing taste too.
They are always used as a starter or one can have it with roti or naan or paratha and basically Internationally they are served with various sauce recipes and the simple sauce to be mentioned is yogurt sauce or dips.
The recipe tastes best with chicken leg quarters and not using boneless chicken but one can give it a try.
How to make the tandoori chicken juicy and soft?
Just add good amount of oil in marination masala and also the baking temperature should be set right.
Below I will be mentioning two ways temperatures to be set while making this recipe which I basically use.
First set up: Preheat the oven to 350 °F or 180 °C and then place the set up. Bake the chicken for 30 minutes and flip them, coat them with butter or oil and cook again for another 30 minutes. This is one way of setting the temperature.
Second set up: Preheat the oven to 380 °F or 200 °C and then bake the chicken for 25 minutes on one side. Flip the pieces, brush them with oil or butter and then bake for another 20 minutes. This temperature baking too gives us juicy tandoori chicken pieces.
Overcooking the chicken leads to hard, dry chicken pieces.
Sunil Maheshwari says
Making Chicken leg quarters using your recipe. You mentioned calories. Is that for 2 or 1 leg quarter? Thanks.
Asiya says
It is for 2 as I am using skinless leg quarters...If using with skin then calories may double up...